In Dreams
by Freisturz
Summary: Two childhood friends set out on a journey together. Little did they know that fate had huge plans for them.    Ch3: A mew hoax?
1. Chapter 1

This is a redone chapter 1. I hope its better than the last. I took into consideration some of the reviews I recieved.

Enjoy, remember to review.

* * *

Three children; Mohan, Lily and Tobias, were gathered around a table in Professor Oak's lab, anxiously awaiting their first pokémon. Oak had been recruiting scores of new trainers to help with his pokédex project, and this was the latest batch.

They were all 16 this year. Old enough to leave home and look after themselves.

Lily was looking over the pokéballs on the table trying to decide which one to take. She had been given the first choice.

Mohan watched his friend as she reached out to take one, then suddenly drew her hand back in indecision. This was probably the most important choice she'd had to make in her whole life. This pokémon would be her partner forever. Mohan silently prayed that she would choose any of them but charmander. Charmander was one of his favourite pokémon of all the known species. Lily knew this, and he hoped his friend wouldn't betray him.

Lily finally took bulbasaur's pokéball from the table and pressed the button on the front of the ball. There was a flash of red light as the grass-type pokémon appeared and let out a cry. "Bulba!"

Lily knelt down next to it and petted it gently on the head. She smiled.

"A fine choice. Bulbasaur is an easy type to raise," the professor said.

"Me next, please?" Mohan begged. He wanted that charmander, and while Lily may have been kind enough to allow him his favourite pokémon, he knew Tobias would take it just to spite him. The two didn't get along at all.

"No way, I'm next!" Toby said.

"Hush Tobias," Oak chided. "You can choose now, Mohan."

Tobias shot Mohan a death stare, then looked over to Oak. "No fair, I want the strongest one, not the leftovers."

"There is no strongest one, Toby. All of these pokémon have their strong and weak points."

Mohan didn't waste any time and went straight for charmander's pokéball. There was a flash of light as he let the pokémon out of its pokéball. Charmander appeared before them, and he knelt down to hug his new pokémon. _As long as I have this charmander, I'll be happy, even if I never catch another pokémon_, He thought to himself.

Tobias snatched up squirtle's pokéball and frowned. "I guess I'm stuck with this one, but on the bright side, it's charmander's weakness. So, Mohan, how about a battle?" He gave a wry smile, a smug look on his face.

"A... battle?" Mohan asked. "Fine..." Mohan stood up and looked down at his pokémon. "Ready charmander? This will be your first fight."

"Char!" the pokémon cried, it seemed eager to show its strength.

"Alright! Go, squirtle!" the tiny turtle pokémon appeared as Tobias threw down the pokéball.

Oak sighed. Those two were constantly at each other's throats.

"Okay charmander, use scratch!" charmander charged at the water pokemon with its claws bared, and scratched it across the face. Squirtle staggered back a little with the force of the attack, and rubbed at the stinging wounds on its face. It got up, and the two pokemon began circling each other, waiting for commands. Charmander let out a growl, and squirtle backed away a little, fearful.

"Use tackle, squirtle!" Toby yelled.

Squirlte glanced at its trainer, then ran at charmander and slammed its body into the fire lizard, sending the pokemon flying.

"Use scratch again!"

Charmander picked itself up slowly, taking a few moments to regain its focus. It repeated its scratch attack, putting alot of force behind it. It seemed more determined this time, that last attack had made it angry.

"Tail whip!"

Squirtle wagged its tail in a cute manner. Charmander stood there bracing for an attack, but when nothing happened it let its guard down.

"Now use tackle, squitle!"

"Look out, charmander!"

Charmander waited for the opportune moment, managing to side step just in time. It breathed fire at Toby's squirtle, which wasn't very effective, but managed to inflict a burn. The fire pokémon smirked slightly, it had squirtle on the ropes.

"Huh, so it already knows ember," Toby commented. "Squirtle, lets try a bubble attack!"

Squirtle opened its mouth and let out a beam of bubbles.

"Charmander!" Mohan cried.

The attack was a direct hit, the water type move doing a lot of damage to the fire-type. Charmander fell to the ground.

"Come on, get up..." Mohan urged.

But charmander was too weak to continue, and fainted.

"Charmander, return..." Mohan said, holding out the pokémon's pokéball. A beam of light shone from it, hitting the fallen charmander and turning into red energy, then withdrew back into the capture device. He had put up a good fight, and really, he didn't mind that he lost. All this meant would be that he couldn't start out on his journey until tomorrow. He needed to give the pokemon time to rest.

"Heh, I knew I'd win. Looks like I got the strongest one after all. See you, losers," Toby turned to leave.

"Wait, Tobias."

He turned back around at the sound of Oak's voice and waited impatiently.

"I want each of you to take one of these." He walked over to a table which had three red devices on it, and took them in his hand. "It's a pokédex. It will record data on pokémon you see," he explained, then handed one to each of them.

"Thanks professor!" Mohan and Lily said in unison.

Oak smiled at them.

"Thanks.. Can I go now? I want to start training," Toby said.

"Yes, Tobias," Oak replied with a sigh.

Toby smiled. "Thanks again for the great pokémon. See you," he turned and left, his squirtle following behind.

Mohan put the pokédex away in his pocket.

"I guess I'll be seeing you, professor," Mohan said. "Thanks for the pokémon and pokédex." He turned and began to walk away, Lily followed.

When they reached the door Lily turned gave a smile and a wave to the pokemon professor.

They walked back towards their houses together. They had planned on starting their adventure together, so Lily would have to wait until Mohan's charmander had recovered. Her bulbasaur bounded along beside them.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Mohan," she said as they reached her gate. "Early."

"Sure, I'll see you then," he replied, walking into the house next door.

He found his mother in the kitchen doing the dishes. She turned as she heard the door open "Welcome back, Mohan. Did you get your first pokemon?"

"Yes, mum, but it's hurt. Toby battled me with his squirtle."

"Ah... I don't see why you two can't just get along..."

Mohan laughed. "Because he's a jerk, mum."

She sighed.

"Anyway, I don't care about that. All I care about is that I got charmander."

She smiled at him. "So, can I see?"

Mohan took the pokéball from his belt and tossed it on the floor. It opened on impact, and charmander appeared. It was curled up asleep.

His mother knelt down next to the fire pokémon and stroked it along its back. The pokémon stirred a little as she petted it. "He looks good and strong," she said. "I suppose Lily got bulbasaur then?"

"Yep."

She continued to pet charmander, and there was a long silence. "So, when are you leaving?"

"Tomorrow." Mohan replied. "Charmander needs to rest up." He put the pokemon back inside its pokéball.

She stood back up. "You'd best get packing then. I'll help you."

* * *

As Mohan slept that night, he dreamed a dream. He was somewhere dark and cold, but he was aware of the faint warmth and light of his charmander's tail. Dark shadows flickered on the walls. He whipped around to see a pokémon fly over him. It was huge and monstrous-looking, with bright red eyes. It twisted its serpentine body, and circled back to land in front of him.

_'You are not welcome here, human,' _it said, and began charging an attack in its mouth.

He woke in a cold sweat.

* * *

Reader input: what should Mohan and Lily's first capture be?


	2. Chapter 2

For anyone who read the first chapter of this fic when it was first submitted, you're going to need to go back and read it again as I have made some major changes.

Thanks.

Remember to review!

* * *

Mohan and Lily set out the next morning. Charmander was fine after a rest, and was now walking at Mohan's heels. Lily's bulbasaur was particularly energetic today and bounded ahead of them, turning to wait impatiently when it got a little too far infront.

"I can tell that thing is going to be a handful," Mohan laughed. "Easy to raise my ass," he said, remembering what Oak had said when he gave her the pokemon.

"Char!" Charmander said in agreement.

"I don't mind it," Lily replied, smiling. She enjoyed watching her bulbasaur's antics.

They soon reached route 1, a trail that cut through a forest. At the end of it was Viridian City, but it would take them a day or two to reach there, depending on how fast they traveled.

Bulbasaur waited at the beginning of the trail. "Bulbasaur!" it cried.

"Stay close now, bulbasaur," Lily said. "It's dangerous along these trails."

Bulbasaur nodded to show that it understood.

Mohan had rarely ever been out of town. When he did, it was always with his mother, and they had many a battle before they reached Viridian City. His mother wasn't exactly a hotshot trainer, but the pokemon were strong enough to allow her to travel a fair bit. His favorite pokemon of hers was ponyta, which he had enjoyed riding when he was younger.

They started down the trail, walking slowly. Mohan could hear pokemon about, and listened carefully for their cries. He heard sentret and the ever-present pidgey, the two most common pokemon found in the area, but they quickly fled.

After a while bulbasaur seemed to forget his orders to stay close and began to run ahead. Lily chased after it "Bulbasaur! What did I say?" She shouted, but the pokemon took no heed.

Mohan pursued them as well, not wanting to get lost by himself in the forest, but Lily was faster and more agile than him. Somewhere along the way, bulbasaur went off the trail, and Mohan lost sight of Lily and her pokemon behind the thick brush. "Lily?" he called.

He was answered with an ear splitting squeal. He covered his ears until it stopped.

"Mohan!" She cried.

Mohan pushed his way through the bushes in the direction of her voice, charmander still following at his side. He found Lily entangled in a spinarak's web.

"Get it off me!"

Mohan couldn't help but laugh, until he saw that the poisonous spider pokemon was still on her. He quickly rushed over and brushed it off her back. The spinarak landed a few feet away on the ground, and quickly began to scurry over. It seemed it was angry that Lily had destroyed its home.

Charmander put himself between his trainer and the wild pokemon, and growled menacingly.

"Alright, charmander. Let's catch this one. Use ember!" Mohan said.

Flames spat from charmanders mouth and hit the bug-type pokemon, doing considerable damage.

Spinarak picked itself up, still able to battle, and used string-shot, entangling charmander in a sticky silk. It then followed up the attack with a poison sting.

"Use scratch, charmander!"

Charmander clawed at the silk, and after freeing itself used a scratch attack. Mohan had an empty pokeball ready, and threw it at the stunned spinarak. The pokeball rocked from side to side, as the bug pokemon made a weak attempt at escaping, then went still.

"Alright, welcome to the team, spinarak!" Mohan said as the pokeball returned to his hand.

"I can't believe you caught such a horrible pokemon," Lily said, still pulling strands of spiderweb out of her hair.

Mohan frowned. "I suppose you're only going to catch cute ones."

"Of course," Lily replied. "I want to catch a sentret... but first I need to find bulbasaur." She looked around, trying to remember which way the pokemon had gone.

"Hmph. Well, I like all pokemon," Mohan said, putting spinarak's pokeball on his belt. "Do you remember where he went?"

"No..." she pushed her way past some low hanging branches, listening carefully for her unruly pokemon.

"Saur!"

she heard the distant cry and began running toward it, calling out to her pokemon as she did so.

Mohan sighed and chased after her. They found the grass pokemon in a clearing eating flowers.

"If you're not going to behave you can go back in your pokeball," Lily said with a frown. "Return." She held out bulbasaur's pokeball and recalled it.

"Now we have to find the trail again..." Mohan said once the stray pokemon was safely back in its pokeball.

"Please don't tell me we're lost..."

"We're lost," Mohan said.

Lily sighed. "We could just keep heading north."

* * *

They travelled north for the rest of the day, which was for the most part uneventful. Charmander fought off any wild pokemon who dared attack them, most of which were nesting pidgey. As the light began to fade they set up camp in a small clearing, and bulbasaur was allowed back out to play with charmander for a time, under Lily's watchful eye. She didn't want a repeat of that morning.

Mohan dreamt again.

This time of a flying pink cat pokemon. It levitated in the air, and flew circles around him, inviting him to follow. It led him up a tall, unfamiliar mountain. He got the sense he was far away from home.

_'We're running out of time.'_


	3. Chapter 3

Mohan woke slowly from his dream, reflecting for a moment on the words the pink pokémon had said to him. '_It was just a dream,'_ he told himself.

He glanced over to Lily. She was still sleeping soundly, her bulbasaur safely inside its pokéball. Charmander had woken and was watching him curiously.

"Do you ever dream, charmander?" Mohan whispered to his pokémon.

Charmander gave a nod.

He petted the pokémon gently on the head, and wondered what charmander dreamt about. It was no use asking him, pokémon couldn't communicate anything complex, due to the language barrier.

He got up and ducked out of the tent. Charmander stretched and yawned before following, still tired. It was early morning, the sun was just coming up over in the east. The pidgey were being noisy in the trees, waking from their sleep. He heard a rustling through the grass and a shrill cry – a sentret had sighted him, and was now fleeing to warn its kin. _Maybe I should wake Lily... _he mused, but decided against it.

Instead he sat down under a tree and took out his pokédex and began scrolling through the entries on the touch screen. The data contained in the pokédex was extensive. It was professor Oak's life work, and was compiled with the help of thousands of trainers. Mohan hit the _search_ function and then _search by location. _He selected _route 1_. A list of pokémon came up; _furret, hoothoot, ledyba,_ _minun, pidgey, pineco, plusle, poochyena, rattatta, sentret, shinx, spinarak, wurmple._

"Wow, I didn't know all these pokémon lived here," he said to his charmander. "I bet Lily will want a plusle or a minun."

"Char," the pokémon said in agreement.

He continued looking through the data in the pokedex, wondering what he could possibly do to contribute to it. It seemed pretty comprehensive as it was. He read through the entries on charmander and spinarak, his only pokémon.

After a while Lily emerged from the tent. "Good morning, Mohan," she said, stretching.

"Morning," he replied, putting his pokédex away out of politeness. "Should we get moving?"

"Yes, the sooner we get out of this spider-ridden forest, the better."

"I thought you wanted a sentret? I saw one earlier... Did you know there's plusle and minun here as well?"

"Really?" Lily's eyes lit up.

"The pokédex says so."

"I hope we find one, then! They're so cute!"

They broke camp that morning and resumed the journey north. The ground began to slope upwards, and it was hard going up the rocky ledges. The flighty pokémon they encountered didn't give them too much trouble. Mostly pidgey and rattatta. Mohan didn't catch anything, the pokémon either escaped from the pokéball and fled, or charmander made them faint with his increasingly powerful ember attack. Mohan didn't mind this; he didn't want to capture mediocre pokémon anyway, he would wait until he saw one that had some spunk.

Later that morning they came to a clearing where a pair of sentret had made their home. Lily let out a small cry of joy and sent out her bulbasaur. "Go, bulbasaur!"

Bulbasaur let out a cry before focusing on the pair of sentret before him, and waited for orders.

The male sentret stepped forward to protect its mate, and started the battle with a scratch attack.

"Use tackle, bulbasaur!"

Bulbasaur charged at the wild pokémon and slammed right into the target-like marking on its belly. The sentret was flung several metres backward with the force of the attack. It picked itself up slowly, a determined look in its eye, before running at bulbasaur and executing another scratch attack.

"Tackle, again!"

Bulbasaur repeated the move, but this time the sentret curled into a ball and bounced away. Sentret uncurled itself and bared its claws again.

"Look out, bulbasaur!"

Bulbasaur dodged the attack, and shot three seeds from the bulb on its back. The seeds hit the wild sentret and quickly grew into vines sapping the sentret of its strength. The pokémon fell to the ground.

"Good job, bulbasaur. Go pokéball!" Lily tossed the ball at the wild sentret, and after putting up a weak fight against the capture device, finally gave up the battle. Lily jumped up and down with glee. "I caught a sentret!" she said to Mohan.

"I saw. I don't think it's mate is too happy, though."

Lily turned her attention to the now-lone female. She was looking at her angrily. Lily frowned and approached the wild pokémon. "Sentret! Sentret!" it cried.

Lily knelt down to be level with her. "I don't want to hurt you," she said. "I promise I'll take good care of your friend. If you want, you can come with me too."

The sentret frowned and looked at the pokéball in Lily's hand, containing her mate. "Sentret..."

Lily offered her an empty pokéball.

"Sentret!" the pokémon swatted the device away with its tail. "Tret, sentret!" She clenched a paw and her fur bristled. It seemed she wanted to fight first.

"Up for another battle, bulbasaur?" Lily asked.

"Bulba!"

Lily moved back to give the pokémon room to fight. "Let's start with that leech seed attack!" Lily commanded.

Bulbasaur fired three seeds from the bulb on its back, but the sentret was too fast, delivering a quick attack and slamming into bulbasaur. Bulbasaur tried to counter with a tackle, but sentret was too fast and ran rings around him. He tried tackle again and again, but missed every time. "Bulba..." the grass pokemon said, gritting his teeth. He was becoming tired and frustrated.

"Try to trip it up with your vines, bulbasaur!"

two vines extended from under bulbasaur's bulb, and sure enough, the tactic worked, sentret falling face-first into the grass. Bulbasaur followed up the attack with a vine whip, smacking the sentret and doing considerable damage.

Lily took a pokéball and threw it at the second sentret. The ball rocked back and forth, Lily watching and praying that the catch was successful. The ball went still, and flew back to Lily's hand. "Alright! Now I have two super-cute sentret!"

Mohan smiled at her. "Great," he said, and the two continued on their way.

They found the trail again later that day, which made them both happy. Pushing through the tall grass and undergrowth was hard work.

They reached the gatehouse by nightfall, with no sightings of plusle or minun, much to Lily's disappointment. Still, she was happy with her catches, and Mohan with his. Spinarak may not be the cutest pokémon, but its poison sting would come in handy in the battles ahead.

They dropped their pokémon at the pokémon centre for the night, and checked into a hotel conveniently located next door. As they were in the elevator, Mohan listened in to a conversation between two trainers.

"Hey, did you watch the news last night?"

"About the mew sighting?"

"Yeah."

"I think it's a hoax. I can't believe everyone is buying it."

Mohan hadn't watched the news for a few days now. It seemed he missed something big. He got off at his floor, pushing past the two trainers who were now engaged in a quarrel about whether this mew creature was real or not. He had never heard of that pokémon before, and once he was in his room took out his pokédex and looked it up. It had almost no data, but when he saw the picture – an artist's drawing – he dropped the device on the floor in shock.

The pokémon from his dream...


End file.
